loading assemblies without typelib

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T Stoneman - 22 Nov 2003 21:51 GMT

Hi,

I've been investigating hosting the CLR in our app. However, all the
examples I have found on the Net where a CLR loads an assembly, it
requires the importing of the typelib associated with the assembly.

I would prefer a more generic way, akin to LoadLibrary vs linking with
the stub .lib for a DLL. I want to write a generic app that can load
any assembly, if it has exposed an interface that has been defined by
us. I have searched, but since I'm a newbie, I can't seem to get
anywhere along this path.

Is there such a way? Can someone point me in the right direction so I
can do further research?

Thanks,

Terry

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Willy Denoyette [MVP] - 23 Nov 2003 14:40 GMT

The CLR doesn't need typelibs to load .NET assemblies.
Typelibs are only required by native COM clients.

Willy.

> Hi,
>
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>
> Terry

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T Stoneman - 24 Nov 2003 17:12 GMT

Hi Willy,

Sorry, I forgot to include several key points.

We currently have a C++ app. I want to add to it the ability to host
a CLR, and to load a variety of different .NET assemblies that all
expose the same interface. This C++ app should be able to scan
through a directory and load all the assemblies that have this
interface.

I have seen examples of a C++ app hosting the CLR, and loading an
assembly, but only when the C++ app imports the typelib for the
assembly. I would like to instead load things dynamically and avoid
using a typelib because I don't know before hand what each assembly is
going to be.

Is there such a way to do what I am describing above?

Thanks,

Terry

> The CLR doesn't need typelibs to load .NET assemblies.
> Typelibs are only required by native COM clients.
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> >
> > Terry

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Ben Rush - 26 Nov 2003 21:54 GMT

I'm afraid I still don't understand, you are looking for typelibs for .NET
assemblies, but afaik they don't have any. All type information for an
assembly exists in its manifest and metadata. Keep in mind I've never
written a native app to host the CLR, though.

Have a look at http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/clr/about_clr_Hosting.aspx

> Hi Willy,
>
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
> > >
> > > Terry

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Joel Pobar [MSFT] - 28 Jan 2004 21:26 GMT

Hi,

If you're looking to load types from the unmanaged world based on what
interface they implement, you can possibly start with the unmanaged
metadata API's (IMetaDataImport, IMetaDataAssemblyImport,
IMetaDataDispenser, IMetaDataTables). There's a cool diagram in the "Common
Language Infrastructure Annotated Standard" by Jim Miller, page 324 that
shows the Metadata table layouts. You can extract a types implemented
interface from there.

Personally, I'd probably try changing whatever requirements you have to
allow Reflection to reflect and load the required types from the managed
world. Much much nicer. =)

Thanks
-Joel.

--------------------

>From: tstoneman4@hotmail.com (T Stoneman)
>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.clr
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>> >
>> > Terry

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loading assemblies without typelib

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